Hank Guss

I am a Mathematics and Computer Science major at Oberlin College. For two years I have been experimenting in ways of using programming languages (mostly Java) to render images that are appealing mathematically and texturally. In most of my work, I attempt to use abstract textures and fractals (all one or two dimensional graphics) to assign depth and three dimensionality to the otherwise flat plane of a computer screen.

Concentric Automata

17 x 25 cm

Java Development Kit

2016

This structure was originally created to simulate the growth of coral. These automata are generated from concentric circles. The movement of the automata is determined by an underlying matrix of values for pixels. As they expand, colour channels overload as they reach the defined maxima for that specific automata. This creates an overlapping RGB petal structure. The colour values increase randomly on expansion, and are also decreased proportionally to the number of steps the automaton has taken so far.

Split

11 x 19 cm

JDK

2016

This piece models random manipulation through a series of recursive steps. At every iteration, regions (starting with the full rectangular region) are split by a line whose vertices are semi-randomly determined based on weightings of side lengths. The resulting shapes can contain any number of edges/vertices, but are guaranteed to be convex. The colours of the resultant shapes are modified slightly from the base colour of their parent shape.